Expansion of Alberta oil sands production could increase CO2 by 30%
Oil sands bitumen extraction cell - Wikipedia
The western Canadian province of Alberta comprises less than ten percent of the country's population but is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, due primarily to oil sands production. Extracting usable oil from tar sands requires a lot of heat, which mostly comes from burning natural gas. With the huge expansion in production that is planned over the next decade, greenhouse gas emissions that are already forty percent over their Kyoto accord targets, are expected to grow by another thirty percent.
Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner is now trying to find ways to make reductions in the emissions. Unfortunately, new regulations recently enacted by the Alberta government won't have much effect anytime soon. Some of the newest and biggest emitters have been given a nine year grace period to meet their reduction targets. If anything, new and large scale emitters should be on the cutting edge of making reductions. After all they have the greatest potential impact.
[Source: Calgary Herald]
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